Freiraum

The aim of the FREIRAUM (Free Space) project is to assess the state of freedom in Europe’s cities. What are the issues that come up when residents, sociologists and creative artists think about the concept of “freedom” in very local terms?
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Freiraum Dublin - Our Film

Europe is poised to change. Populist and nationalist parties are gaining support in many countries. Scepticism towards the EU, such as was expressed in the Brexit referendum, for example, is not confined to Great Britain.

The Goethe-Institut sees itself as an Institution with a European mission. It stands for a vision of European integration, propounds a common European cultural space based on multicultural diversity and autonomy, and is committed to a corresponding set of values embracing inclusiveness, openness, generosity and justice. At the same time, it is conscious of the processes outlined above and the present situation, widely felt to be critical. Against this background, clinging blindly to the erstwhile narrative of European unity can easily be taken for a denial of reality. Europe has got to rise to this challenge, and in the same way, the Goethe-Institut must stress its continuing Euro-political commitment.

One contribution to this new orientation is the important "Freiraum" project which takes place from 2017 to 2019, during which each participating location developed a question related to the concept of freedom. As well as developing these local projects across Europe, each Goethe-Institut is partnered with another in order to encourage the cross cultural exchange of ideas and solutions at a European level.

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Creative Arts, community and improving access to higher education – a path to freedom in Europe?
As part of this Europe wide programme ‘Freiraum’ initiated by the Goethe-Institut, Dublin is looking at economic inequality and the limits to freedom in Europe. Within this context, this project builds on a new partnership between the Trinity College access programmes and Dublin City Council to address inequalities in access to higher education in Dublin’s city centre.

Dublin’s city centre is home to a diverse set of societal and educational challenges characterised by a progression rate to college which is less than half that of the national average. This project empowers second level students in areas underrepresented at third level by enabling them to participate in leadership projects which focus on increasing awareness and engagement in the community with the creative arts and European languages and cultures.

Within the framework of the cooperation for “Freiraum”, two independent projects have been developed and will initially run from September 2018 to February 2019: The Creative Arts Programme and the European Languages and Cultures Programme. Both projects involve 30 pupils from partner schools across Dublin.

The participants of the Creative Arts Programme will have the opportunity to get to know various cultural institutions in Dublin and their ways of thinking and working, while the participants of the European Languages and Cultures Programme will focus on four European languages and the respective cultures of the countries.

The projects in Dublin will be accompanied by the Thinktank for Action on Social Change (TASC). With the Goethe-Institut in Nancy as a project partner, there will be a direct exchange of ideas and thus a cross-border discussion of the project-related issues.

Creative Arts Programme

This project aims to empower students by enabling them to participate in leadership projects which will be focused on increasing awareness and engagement in the community with creative arts. This project will introduce students to the spaces they may have thought of as not for them and not their own. Theatres, galleries, writing centres and concert halls are all on the city's doorstep yet many of us feel these places aren't for us nor are they a place to feel at home or comfortable.

Trinity Access Programmes and the Goethe-Institut Irland in conjunction with The City Arts Office will work to provide a cultural arts programme to introduce students to new ways of thinking, to using their creativity and to inhabit the spaces these institutes provide. By completing this programme students can harness new ways of thinking, new routes of artistic expression and a newfound freedom and ease within such cultural spheres.This series of five workshops are aimed at 4th year students. Each workshop will provide an interactive introduction into different aspects of the creative arts. These workshops take place on the last Thursday of the month from September 2018 to February 2019 (excl. December). Students partake in a morning session, lunch and an afternoon session at each cultural institute which will run from 9:30am-3:30pm. The dates for these events are as follows:

The students were introduced to the Creative Arts Programme by representatives of the Goethe-Institut, TAP and Dublin City Arts Office. After some ice breakers, there were participating in a workshop on street photography with your mobile phone with Vanessa Ifediora. Vanessa is a Belfast born, Dublin based portrait photographer. The workshop was accompanied by an Instawalk towards Trinity College on which the students were to capture „what freedom means to you in the city?“ in a picture. After lunch at Trinity, they headed over to The Lab Gallery to explore the current exhibiton by Sean O’Rourke and take part in a painting workshop.

Founded by Roddy Doyle and Seán Love, Fighting Words aims at helping children and young people, and adults who did not have this opportunity as children, to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills. At its core, Fighting Words is also about something much broader and more inclusive. It is about using the creative practice of writing and storytelling to strengthen our children and teenagers – from a wide range of backgrounds – to be resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives.

Fishamble is an Olivier Award-winning, internationally acclaimed Irish theatre company, which discovers, develops and produces new work, across a range of scales. Each year, Fishamble typically supports 60% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland, through its extensive programme of Training, Development and Mentoring schemes.

The Abbey Theatre is Ireland’s national theatre. They make urgent theatre. Inspired by the revolutionary ideals of the Abbey Theatre’s founders and a rich canon of Irish dramatic writing, their mission is to imaginatively engage with all of Irish society through the production of ambitious, courageous and new theatre in all its forms. They commit to lead in the telling of the whole Irish story, in English and in Irish, and they affirm that the Abbey is a theatre for the entire island of Ireland and for all its people. In every endeavour, they promote inclusiveness, diversity and equality.

The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a home of musical excellence and dynamism, a place of teaching and learning which consistently achieves its objective of transmitting and maintaining the highest standards of performance and appreciation in all musical disciplines. Your day at RIAM will include music appreciation workshops, introductions to music theory and hands-on interaction with instruments.

European Culture & Language Programme

This project introduces fourth year students to the European cultural institutes around the city of Dublin. Trinity Access Programmes and the Goethe-Institut Irland are proudly working in conjunction with a number of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) to curate five programme days for our TAP-linked schools. With airline flights to mainland Europe costing less than a taxi home, traveling around the continent has never been easier. This project delves into the cultures and languages which inhabit the countries of Europe. Throughout the programme, students will get the chance to explore the food, language, literature, theatre and cinema of European cultures. They will taste the flavours, read the texts and learn the languages which built the great European traditions of artistic culture. This programme is part of a pan-European project called 'Freiraum' which supports freedom of thought across Europe.

This programme is ideal for fourth year students who are interested in exploring new cultures and arts. The language classes cater for those who have already studied the language to Junior Cert. level as well as absolute beginners. The programme also features many learning-processes akin to that of a third-level education of European languages, so it is a great taster course for anyone thinking of studying French, German, Spanish or Italian at a university level.

This series of five workshops provide an interactive introduction into different aspects of European cultures and languages. These workshops take place on the second Thursday of the month from October 2018 to February 2019. Students partake in a morning session, lunch and an afternoon session at each cultural institute. These dates for these events are as follows:

Trinity Access Programmes (TAP)
Trinity Access Programmes’ mission is to work in partnership across the education sector and with students, teachers, families, communities and businesses to widen access and participation at third-level of under-represented groups in Ireland.

City Arts Office, Dublin City Council
Dublin City Arts Office is a specialist service within Dublin City Council that represents a strategic investment in the arts by the City Council. Leading, developing and working in partnership, they support artists, arts organisations and the city’s communities to deliver quality arts experiences that contribute to Dublin’s cultural life.
Thinktank for Action on Social Change (TASC)
The Thinktank for Action on Social Change is an organisation that approaches promoting awareness of economic and social inequality and of democratic processes in a theoretical and practical way

The European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) is a network of European national institutes of culture and national bodies engaged in cultural and related activities beyond their national borders. EUNIC brings together organisations from all 28 EU member states and adds value through its global network of clusters. By pooling together the resources and expertise of its members and carrying out joint work on common areas of interest, EUNIC is a recognized partner of the EU and its stakeholders in defining and implementing European policy on culture inside and outside the EU. The overarching purpose of EUNIC is to create effective partnerships and networks between the participating organisations, to improve and promote cultural diversity and understanding between European societies, and to strengthen international dialogue and co-operation with countries outside Europe.